North Carolina SB 666: 2025 Water Safety Act.

Bill Text

GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA 
SESSION 2025 
S 1 
SENATE BILL 666 
 
 
Short Title: 2025 Water Safety Act. (Public) 
Sponsors: Senator Lee (Primary Sponsor). 
Referred to: Rules and Operations of the Senate 
March 26, 2025 
*S666-v-1* 
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED 1 
AN ACT TO PROVIDE FUNDS FOR PFAS MITIGATION AND RESEARCH, TO DIRECT 2 
THE COMMISSION FOR PUBLIC HEALTH TO ADOPT STANDARDS FOR PFAS IN 3 
DRINKING  WATER,  AND TO  DIRECT  THE  DEPARTMENT  TO  ADOPT  PFAS 4 
DISCHARGE  LIMITS  FOR SIGNIFICANT INDUSTRIAL  USERS  AND PUBLICLY 5 
OWNED TREATMENT WORKS DISCHARGING DIRECTLY TO SURFACE WATERS. 6 
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts: 7 
 8 
PFAS MITIGATION GRANTS 9 
SECTION  1.(a)  Mitigation  Grants. – Article  9  of  Chapter  130A  of  the  General 10 
Statutes is amended by adding a new Part to read: 11 
"Part 9. PFAS Mitigation. 12 
"§ 130A-310.80.  Definitions. 13 
In addition to the definitions in G.S. 130A-2 and G.S. 130A-290, the following definitions 14 
apply in this Part: 15 
(1) Distressed unit. – As defined in G.S. 159G-20. 16 
(3) Fund – The PFAS Mitigation and Fund established in G.S. 130A-310.84. 17 
(4) PFAS. – Per- and  polyfluoroalkyl  substances,  including perfluorooctanoic 18 
acid  (PFOA),  perfluorooctanesulfonate  (PFOS), hexafluoropropylene  oxide 19 
dimer acid (HFPO-DA, also known as GenX), perfluorohexanesulfonic acid 20 
(PFHxS),  and  perfluorononanoic  acid  (PFNA),  and  Perfluorobutanesulfonic 21 
acid (PFBS). 22 
(5) SWIA. – The State Water Infrastructure Authority established in Article 5 of 23 
Chapter 159G of the General Statutes. 24 
"§ 130A-310.82.  Purpose. 25 
The  purpose  of  this  Part  is to  provide funding  to  support  the  mitigation  of  the  impacts  of 26 
environmental contamination due to PFAS on local public water and wastewater systems.  27 
"§ 130A-310.84.  PFAS Mitigation Fund. 28 
(a) Fund Established. – The PFAS Mitigation Fund is established within the Department. 29 
The purpose of the Fund is to support statewide efforts to detect, reduce, mitigate, and prevent 30 
exposure to PFAS and to support scientific research and technology development related to PFAS 31 
removal,  treatment,  monitoring,  and  precursor  identification.  The  fund  consists  of any  funds 32 
appropriated to it by the General Assembly and grants from federal agencies or other non-State 33 
entities. 34 

General Assembly Of North Carolina Session 2025 
Page 2  Senate Bill 666-First Edition 
(b) Uses of Fund. – The Fund may only be used by SWIA to provide grants to units of 1 
local  government operating  public  water  or  wastewater  treatment  systems for  any  of  the 2 
following: 3 
(1) PFAS sampling and monitoring in drinking water, wastewater, surface water, 4 
and groundwater. 5 
(2) Installation or upgrade of water treatment technologies for PFAS removal. 6 
(3) Emergency response and remediation of PFAS contamination in soil, surface 7 
water, and groundwater. 8 
(c) Funding Criteria  and  Oversight. – SWIA shall  establish  criteria  and application 9 
procedures for local PFAS response  grants,  and shall prioritize grants to  public water systems 10 
and public wastewater systems (i)  for which contamination from PFAS has caused the greatest 11 
impacts on public  health  and  the  environment  and  (ii) that  are  or  meet  the  criteria  to  be 12 
categorized as a distressed unit. 13 
(d) Report. – SWIA shall report annually as a part of the report required by G.S. 159G-72 14 
regarding projects funded under this section. The report shall include the project type (sampling 15 
and  monitoring,  treatment  technologies,  or  emergency  response), the project  recipient, a brief 16 
description of project and the amount of funding provided." 17 
SECTION 1.(b)  Conforming Change. – G.S. 159G-71 reads as rewritten: 18 
"§ 159G-71.  State Water Infrastructure Authority; powers and duties. 19 
The Authority has the following additional duties: 20 
... 21 
(13) To award grants to mitigate the impacts of environmental contamination due 22 
to PFAS on local public water and wastewater systems." 23 
SECTION  2.  Funding. – The  sum  of  fifty-six  million  dollars  ($56,000,000)  in 24 
recurring  funds  for  the  2025-2026  fiscal  year  is  appropriated  from  the  General  Fund  to  the 25 
Department  of  Environmental  Quality  for  the  PFAS  Mitigation  Fund  established  in  Part  9  of 26 
Article 9 of Chapter 130A of the General Statutes, as enacted by Section 1 of this act. 27 
 28 
RESEARCH GRANTS 29 
SECTION  3.(a)  PFAS  Research  Funding. – The  sum  of  fourteen  million  dollars 30 
($14,000,000) in recurring funds for the 2025-2026 fiscal year is appropriated from the General 31 
Fund to the North Carolina Collaboratory at the University of North Carolina (Collaboratory).  32 
These funds will be used to support scientific research on PFAS conducted by or in collaboration 33 
with public or nonprofit academic institutions, including